Why Your Business Needs a Facebook Page

Why Your Business Needs a Facebook Page

I have been asked multiple times from business owners if they should create a Facebook page for their business. They see others are doing it, but whether it is a lack of familiarity with social media, the fear of engaging a social community, or simply not wanting to make the time to create one, many businesses hesitate to join the world’s greatest venue for advertising.

With over 500 million users and growing by the thousands everyday, Facebook has quickly become the Mecca of social media. It has transformed from a simple way for college kids to interact with each other to now the best place to promote your business. Let me share with you 3 reasons why your business needs a Facebook page. In effort to keep this article short, I won’t go into great detail on each one or list every reason, but hopefully this list is expansive enough to convince you to stop reading this article and go create one now!

1.) Engaging Your Community

The old way advertising worked was you promote your business in magazines, TV, and other forms of media hoping that people would leave what they are doing and come visit your business. We live in a Web 2.0 (arguably 3.0 now) culture where people no longer come to you. We must enter their conversation and go where they are at. Having a Facebook page does exactly that. you enter the world of your customers, you get to engage with them outside of your brick and mortar business and create relationship. People are no longer interested in a product that does not offer a culture of relationship with it. Look at Apple. Why is Apple now outselling all PCs? They have created a culture around their products where people on the outside hold their hands up to the glass trying to look in. Facebook creates that culture around your business where customers from all over the world can connect with each other.

2.) Viral marketing

Have you ever noticed when purchasing an item from Amazon how they have a section below the product called “Customers Also Bought?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up an extra book or movie simply by the purchasing habits of people similar to me, but I have never met. What if you knew those people with similar shopping habits as you though? Would you be more likely to buy? Of course you would! When people interact with your Facebook page through comments, liking something or some form of activity, it shows up on their news feed that ALL of their friends see. With the average Facebook user having at least 150 friends, there is a viral effect with every interaction your customers have on your Facebook page. There is no where else you can get such exposure so quickly and for FREE!

3.) Options Galore

Once you create a Facebook page, there is so much you can do with it! I know many companies who have used Facebook to be their sole website simply because of all it can do. Facebook pages have all that a normal profile would with wall comments, video, photo, events, and applications abilities. Plus, with plugins like FBML, you can create welcome pages with custom HTML that are direct links to your primary website or other tabs on your Facebook. For a good example of this check out the School of Prophetic Arts’ Facebook page. Once you have at least 25 fans, you can create a vanity URL for your Facebook page that gives you a link like www.facebook.com/yournamehere.

If you haven’t already opened a tab to Facebook and begun creating a page, then what are you waiting for? If you went to Facebook, but you can’t figure out where to begin, then join the rest of everyone else who had that dilemma! To create a Facebook page, you have to go to one that has already been created (such as this one) and then scroll down to the bottom-left text links and you’ll see one titled, “Create a Page For Your Business.”

There are plenty more reasons why you should create a Facebook page, but hopefully these three gave you enough motivation to go do it!

For those of you who have created a Facebook page, what are some of the reasons you made one and what results have you seen for your business?